St. Dominic Health Services - Grants to Neighborhood Homeowners

What is it?

In 2006, St. Dominic Health Services committed $250,000 over a five-year period to the Phoenix Initiative, a grant program that assists qualified homeowners with renovations and repairs to their homes within the hospital’s Fondren community. The Phoenix Initiative spent the last half of 2010 and all of 2011 looking for funding to continue the program. The Phoenix Initiative has recently partnered with Habitat for Humanity/Metro Jackson.

With Habitat’s commitment of $90,000 over the next three years, the Phoenix Initiative was able to secure funding from a challenge grant offered by St. Dominic Health Services in the amount of $90,000. Applicants for this program will now apply through Habitat. The grant structure has changed significantly, and the applicants will now have to qualify according to income level. We believe the program will be a continued success.

Who is it for?

Qualified homeowners in the hospital’s Fondren community.

Why do they do it?

This grant program was developed to support the Fondren District Renaissance Foundation, a public and private collaboration aimed at improving St. Dominic’s neighborhood. St. Dominic’s is not only committed to excellence in patient care, it is also committed to the Fondren District, in the heart of the city of Jackson, which has been home to the hospital for more than 60 years. Most of the homes in the neighborhood are 50 or more years old, and the majority of homeowners exist on fixed incomes. Making home repairs was not an option for many.

Impact

In its initial years, the program offered up to $5,000 in grants, with a 25 percent match up to $1,250 from homeowners, for a total project budget of $6,250 to repair and renovate homes within the community. One of the first renovations projects to benefit from the grant program provided repair for structural damage and replacement of a roof blown off by high winds during Hurricane Katrina.

Contact: Bill Scruggs
Special Projects and Community Activity Coordinator
Telephone: 601-200-6994
E-mail: bscruggs@stdom.com